Random Events

for those who are "old" (as i am do you remember the following games ?

Alpha Centaury Civilisation
Outpost 1 (2 was a mess)
Sim City...

All these had a point in common... there was the basic game... and there were random events (flood, storm, solar erruption, illness etc)

I think it could be very nice to implement them in the game... to give the game some "deep" scenario idea...

THE IDEA
It is a post apocalyptic world...

so... here a few easy (i think) ideas for random events (good or bad... 10% of chance each playing day...)

1) strong acid rain ruins farms (must be repaired)
2) electric storm damage vehicules, units and electric equipments USELSS they are inside buildings, bunkers etc (1 damage each turn on each unit on battle field for 3 days if player is attacked on the other hand. Harvester immune of course
3) strong rain makes forest grow faster (good i hope )
4) a sandstorm uncovers a wreck (of a random unit)
and so on

I've played a few games that utilise random events and they have a huge impact on the user. From my experience, these random events are an annoyance to players and the true purpose of them is to detect 'bots' and stop them from playing. For example, A game I played years ago the random event sequence would teleport the players character to a environment far away and isolated from the game map, and would give them a small, 10 minute mission ie, solve the maze, simon says or a question. Players would hate being teleported away from their game but they knew it was to get rid of bots, so the game rewarded each player who experienced a random event (it least twice a day) a small prize, whether it be in game currency or an item.

I do like the idea of these though as they could add variety, but some are unnecessary. A sandstorm which uncovers a wreck, sounds great as it something that helps the player, but a random event that hinders the player would be shooting ourselves in the foot, as from player feedback the game is already difficult enough!

If you come up with any positive random events, let me know. Cool idea though, I can see some sort of random sequence event working in the future

- sandstorm uncover wreck or ressources (random quality and amount)
- "your scanenvers, while exporting a city discover some working construction vehicules, thus cutting the price of your next construction by 10, 20 or 50%"
- special "add ons" for some vehicles (special missiles, adding an additional +1 in range to just one unit"

there are plenty of
(not sure there are bots in this game btw, because as there is no trade between players, there is no reasons for bots

- sandstorm uncover wreck or ressources (random quality and amount)
- "your scanenvers, while exporting a city discover some working construction vehicules, thus cutting the price of your next construction by 10, 20 or 50%"
- special "add ons" for some vehicles (special missiles, adding an additional +1 in range to just one unit"

there are plenty of
(not sure there are bots in this game btw, because as there is no trade between players, there is no reasons for bots

No you are correct there are no bots, I Really like these suggestions, if you think of anymore please keep them coming. I'm making note of all of them

Sandstorm sounds like a nice idea I like it, What about some sort of care package drop and a player has 30 seconds to access it with a ground unit (scavenger or infratry) to retreat it. Maybe a prize of 500 resources?

- sandstorm uncover wreck or ressources (random quality and amount)
- "your scanenvers, while exporting a city discover some working construction vehicules, thus cutting the price of your next construction by 10, 20 or 50%"
- special "add ons" for some vehicles (special missiles, adding an additional +1 in range to just one unit"

there are plenty of
(not sure there are bots in this game btw, because as there is no trade between players, there is no reasons for bots